Switzerland

PwC

Sarah Dahinden is a senior manager at PwC in Switzerland's tax services practice. As a lawyer, she regularly and successfully assists clients in tax litigation cases.

After passing the law and the attorney-at-law degree, Sarah wrote her thesis in international tax law, concerning tax sheltering of foreign companies. Subsequently, she passed the exam for certified tax experts.

Before joining PwC in 2007, Sarah had worked at a district court, at the University of Zurich (dealing with tax law), at two of the bigger law firms in Zurich and in the legal department of the tax authority of the Canton of Zurich.

Sarah renders services in different tax fields, usually with a clear focus on legal procedures and tax litigation in the corporate tax field. Sarah is a member of the International Fiscal Association (IFA). She is fluent in English.

Jean-Blaise studied law at the University of Neuchâtel and was admitted to the Bar of Neuchâtel in 1989 and to the Bar of Geneva in 1991. He studied business administration at Berkeley's Haas Business School in the US where he acquired an MBA in 1991. He acquired a diploma as a certified tax expert in 1994. He is considered as a leading lawyer in Switzerland.

Jean-Blaise advises a number of multinational groups of companies as well as high net worth individuals. He sits on the board of a number of public and private companies. He has been nominated by Chambers in 2013 as a leading individual in tax. He is a frequent speaker at professional conferences on tax matters. He also teaches in the master's programmes of the University of Geneva and the University of Lausanne. He is a vice president and member of the executive committee of the International Fiscal Association (IFA). He is also a reporter to the IBA and IFA congress on Swiss tax matters.

PwC

Niklaus Honauer is a partner at PwC in Switzerland's tax services practice. He regularly and successfully assists clients in tax litigation.

After completing his law degree and the attorney-at-law, Niklaus joined PwC in 1990 as partner and leader of the Swiss VAT team. In 2000 he became a member of the competence centre for indirect taxes of the Swiss Chamber of Tax Advisers, which he leads as president. Since 2001 he has been a member of the indirect tax leading team within PwC.

Niklaus has been a tax and legal consultant for nearly 30 years. He consults for both multinational and mid-sized companies in all kind of indirect tax issues. He is one of the leading indirect tax consultants in Switzerland and is well known in the industry and the tax administration.

With his position as a member of the indirect tax leading board in Europe, he has a direct link to all PwC indirect tax partners all over the world.

Niklaus's mother tongue is Swiss German. He speaks English and French fluently.

PwC

Benjamin Koch is a partner at PwC in Switzerland. He joined the transfer pricing and value chain transformation team in 2004.

Before joining PwC, Benjamin gained diversified international management experience in finance and transfer pricing in the pharmaceutical R&D and pharmaceutical distribution industry, the telecommunications and the construction industry. He also gained international experience as a senior consultant for M&A and equity finance.

Benjamin's experience includes advising multinational companies on structuring of global manufacturing and distribution, development of global core documentation, migration of intangible property, establishing global trademark royalty schemes and the development of service fee concepts. Benjamin has successfully implemented various value chain / business model transformation projects including post merger integration.

Deloitte Switzerland

René Schreiber is a corporate international tax partner and the outbound tax leader of Deloitte Switzerland. He has 20 years of experience in corporate and international tax matters.

René has a wide experience in advising leading Swiss multinationals. His projects include advising on international structuring and financing matters as well as cross-border reorganisations. He advises clients across manufacturing, energy & resources and biotechnology industries in all aspects of tax controversy matters including preparation of appeals against tax assessments and assisting with tax audits and complex tax ruling proceedings. His client portfolio consists of large Swiss-based multinationals and well-established entities in the mid-market.

René is a Swiss certified tax expert, attorney-at-law and has a diploma in law (lic-iur) from the University of Bern.

He is a member of the study commission and lectures in international tax law at the Schweizerisches Institut für Steuerlehre (SIST) in Zurich for the master's of advanced studies in taxation / LLM programme. René is also a frequent speaker at national and international tax conferences and has published numerous articles in the field of corporate and international taxation.